In anticipation of the St. Louis Premiere of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Union Avenue Opera, here are two excerpts from the opera's premiere at San Francisco Opera featuring Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois. Take a moment to watch and listen, then get your tickets at unionavenueopera.org if you haven't already. Don't miss this Streetcar!
"I Want Magic" from Act Three, Scene Two
"I Can Smell the Sea Air" from Act Three, Scene Four
The St. Louis Premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire opens Friday, August 1st and continues its run Aug 2, 8 & 9 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. Performances begin at 8:00pm. Production sung in English with projected English supertitles. Tickets may be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.
Union Avenue Opera welcomes Soprano Zulimar López-Hernández to its stage for La Traviata, in which she sings the role of the courtesan Violetta Valery. Zulimar comes to us from Puerto Rico to make her UAO debut.
Zulimar's vocal studies began in Puerto Rico and continued in the U.S. at Philadelphia's prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts. Over the past seasons, she has performed as a Young Artist with Glimmerglass Opera, followed by engagements in principal roles with Syracuse Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Memphis, Dayton Opera and Opera Santa Barbara. This year, she will sing Micaëla in Carmen for Knoxville Opera and makes an important debut at London's Royal Albert Hall as Musetta in La Bohème.
Below is a video of Zulimar singing "Deh vieni non tardar" from Le Nozze di Figaro. You may learn more about her at www.zulimarlopez.com
La Traviata opens July 11th and runs July 12, 18 & 19 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. Tickets can be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.
Union Avenue Opera welcomes back Baritone Robert Garner for La Traviata, in which he sings the role of Giorgio Germont, Alfredo's father. Robert returns to St. Louis from New York City after singing Sharpless in last season's Madama Butterfly. In past UAO seasons, he has sung Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Ford in Falstaff, the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Mr. Garner's career has taken him all over the country in a variety of opera companies including Opera Colorado, Mississippi Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Dayton Opera and Anchorage Opera. For several seasons, Robert has been a long-standing member of the Metropolitan Opera associate chorus (both in New York and on tour in Japan), performing in Aida, Don Carlo, Billy Budd and Götterdämmerung among many other operas.
Below is a video of Robert singing Germont's Act Two aria "Di Provenza il mar" from La Traviata.
La Traviata opens July 11th and runs July 12, 18 & 19 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. Tickets can be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.
Union Avenue Opera welcomes Italian-Canadian Tenor Riccardo Iannello to the stage for the season opener La Traviata, in which he sings the role of the love-struck Alfredo Germont. Riccardo comes to St. Louis for the first time from Toronto and is excited to make his debut with Union Avenue Opera.
A student of singing from a very young age in his native Canada, Riccardo's studies have brought him to Austria, France, Rome and Boston. Before his current engagement with UAO, he has performed with Opéra de Montréal, the Banff Centre, Pacific Opera Victoria and Canadian Opera Company, among others. Later this year, he will perform with Wexford Festival Opera in Wexford, Ireland.
Below is a video of Riccardo singing Alfredo's Act Two aria "De' Miei Bollenti Spiriti" from La Traviata. You can see more videos at his YouTube page and learn more about him at www.riccardoiannello.com
La Traviata opens July 11th and runs July 12, 18 & 19 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. Tickets can be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.
Winter Opera Saint Louis General Director Gina Galati and Music Director Steven Jarvi sat down for an interview with STL TV to discuss the company and its upcoming seventh season.
(The above embedded video is a playlist of two videos.)
Winter Opera Saint Louis's season begins on November 8 & 10 with Faust, then continues with Falstaff in February and Lucia di Lammermoor in March. Performances take place at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade (425 S. Lindbergh Blvd, St. Louis, MO, 63131). Tickets and more information can be found by calling 314-865-0038 or visiting winteroperastl.org
Operatic Saint Louis concludes its series of historical facts on the leading characters of Winter Opera Saint Louis' upcoming production of The Ballad of Baby Doe. The final historical figure in this series is Elizabeth "Baby Doe" Tabor. Be sure to read all about Baby Doe's small historical connection to St. Louis!
Facts on Elizabeth McCourt Tabor:
Born Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt in 1854 Oshkosh, Wisconsin to Irish immigrants.
Married Harvey Doe in 1877; moved with him to Central City, Colorado that same year.
Earned the name "Baby Doe" in the years her husband owned and ran the Fourth of July gold mine.
Grew disenchanted with Harvey Doe, likely due to his alcoholism and financial troubles, and went to Leadville, Colorado, where she met silver baron Horace Tabor, who left his first wife Augusta, to spend time with her.
Divorced Harvey Doe in March 1880; became established in fancy hotel suites in Denver and Leadville with financial support from Tabor.
Went with Tabor to St. Louis in September 1882 to be married in secret. (More on this below!)
Augusta Tabor, long steadfast in refusing to grant a divorce, finally relented in January 1883.
Two months later, Baby Doe (28) and Tabor (52) were married publicly at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. during Tabor's brief tenure as U.S. Senator.
After performing the ceremony, the Catholic priest learned both husband and wife had been divorced and refused to sign the marriage license, an action that set off a scandal which tarnished the Tabors' societal standing.
Gave birth to two daughters: Elizabeth Bonduel Lily (1884) and Rose Mary Echo Silver Dollar (1889).
Promised to fulfill her husband's dying wish that the Matchless Mine--their motherlode of fortune--be held onto, which she managed to do until ultimately losing the mine in 1927 to satisfy a debt.
Despite loss of the mine, the owners allowed Baby Doe to live in the cabin near the mine shaft.
In Winter 1935, neighbors discovered her body in the cabin, frozen to death on the floor.
In contrast to the size of Augusta's estate (more than $1.5 million), Baby Doe's possessions were auctioned off to souvenir collectors for a mere $700. Buried next to Horace in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Baby Doe and Horace Tabor have a small historical connection to the city of St. Louis. In the book The Legend of Baby Doe: The Life and Times of the Silver Queen of the West, author John Burke describes Horace Tabor's maneuvering to placate Baby Doe, who desperately wanted to get married despite Horace's difficulty securing a legal divorce from Augusta:
"Without having papers served on Augusta, Horace quickly obtained a divorce, garlanded with fraud and perjury though it was. He and Baby then journeyed secretly to St. Louis, where they were married by a justice of the peace. Technically, they were now living not in sin but in a state of bigamy. He promised that they would be married in a Catholic ceremony once the legal obstacles were cleared. Baby was pacified for the moment--at least she had a marriage certificate to fondle--but a secret marriage was almost as unsatisfactory as the previous arrangement. She was getting awfully tired of wearing that heavy veil whenever she and Horace ventured into public view; of tripping over curbstones and blundering into lampposts. Furthermore the disguise wasn't fooling people anymore."
The role of Baby Doe in the Douglas Moore opera is a veritable gold-- or shall we say silvermine of arias for lyric coloratura sopranos. Baby Doe sings five arias throughout the opera: the Willow Song, the Letter Aria ("Dearest Mama..."), an aria sung to her romantic rival Augusta ("I Knew It Was Wrong"), the Silver Aria ("Gold is a fine thing...") sung to make peace between gold- and silver-standard supporters, and "Always Through the Changing," sung to her dying husband at the conclusion of the opera. Listen to an interpretation of the Willow Song by soprano Beverly Sills, who sang the role in its 1958 New York City Opera premiere.
The Ballad of Baby Doe runs February 8th (8pm) and 10th (3pm) at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts on the campus of Chaminade College Preparatory School (425 S. Lindbergh Blvd; map). Tickets may be purchased by calling 314-865-0038 or online at http://winteroperastl.tix.com/ $10 Student Rush Tickets available at the door; valid Student ID required. For more information on this and future productions, visit WinterOperaSTL.org
Operatic Saint Louis continues its series of historical facts on the leading characters of Winter Opera Saint Louis' upcoming production of The Ballad of Baby Doe. The second in this series is Augusta Tabor, first wife of Horace Tabor.
Augusta Tabor
Facts on Augusta Pierce Tabor:
Born to William B. Pierce and Lucy Eaton in 1833 Augusta, Maine.
In her early twenties, she courted Horace Tabor, then one of her father's employees.
Married Tabor in 1857 before moving west to the Kansas Territory.
Gave birth to one son, Nathaniel "Maxcy" Tabor, during this marriage.
Moved with Horace to Denver on news of a gold rush, where she worked as a cook, laundress and postmistress.
Settled in Leadville, CO, where she shared in ownership of the Little Pittsburgh and Matchless silver mines, often cooking for and ministering to the miners.
Tabor built her a twenty-room mansion in Denver during his term as Colorado Lt. Governor.
After Tabor's scandalous affair with Baby Doe, she was divorced in 1883 and took up full residence in her Denver mansion, eventually running it as a boarding house. In 1892, she had moved across the the street to live at the Brown Palace Hotel, ran by her son.
Devoted her newfound single life to cultural and social philanthropy, with special attention to the Pioneer Ladies Aid Society and Unity Unitarian Church of Denver.
As Horace and Baby Doe lost their fortunes to the decline of silver, Augusta abandoned the trade and thus lived comfortably, if frugally, for the remainder of her life.
In need of a climate more conducive to her deteriorating health in the last years of her life, she eventually moved to Pasadena, California, where she died in 1895 at the age of 62.
Having died a wealthy woman, Augusta Tabor left her son Maxcy a fortune of $1.5 million.
Buried in Denver, Colorado. An inscription on her tombstone reads: "She came where there were no roads and left a path for us to follow. She came to a wilderness and made it a place of settlement. She fed the hungry and healed the sick, giving generously of those motherly gifts which settled rough mining camps. She came searching for gold and left behind the treasure of civilization."
Composer Douglas Moore sought a darker vocal color for Augusta Tabor, presumably to contrast the high lyric coloratura lines of Baby Doe. As such, the role has been performed by several Mezzo-Sopranos, chief among them Frances Bible (who recorded Augusta in the 1959 New York City Opera recording), Joyce Castle and Martha Lipton, creator of the role. The composer wrote several monologues and scenes that highlight and deepen the character's joys, anger, suspicions and pain. Act One, Scene Five (as seen in the video below) is an especially dramatic scene in which Augusta's friends venomously inform her of Horace's plans to divorce. She is resolved to ruin him. Taken from a recent Central City Opera production, the video below features Mezzo-Soprano Joyce Castle as Augusta:
You can learn more about Augusta Tabor and the other historical figures of the opera by visiting BabyDoe.org
The Ballad of Baby Doe runs February 8th (8pm) and 10th (3pm) at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts on the campus of Chaminade College Preparatory School (425 S. Lindbergh Blvd; map). Tickets may be purchased by calling 314-865-0038 or online at http://winteroperastl.tix.com/ $10 Student Rush Tickets available at the door; valid Student ID required. For more information on this and future productions, visit WinterOperaSTL.org
Union Avenue Opera's production of Das Rheingold continues its run this weekend, August 24 & 25. Check out this video preview of the production:
Be sure to click here and read what the critics have to say about the production! Das Rheingold continues its run this weekend: August 24 & 25 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. All performances begin at 8:00pm. Production sung in German with projected English supertitles. Tickets may be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.
Click on the YouTube video below to see a sneak peek at staging rehearsal of Turandot. The video features Baritone Todd von Felker, Baritone Andrew Papas and Tenor Clark Sturdevant as Imperial Ministers Ping, Pong and Pang, respectively.
Union Avenue Opera continues its annual holiday tradition in presenting Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, which opens this evening. Enjoy an audiovisual preview of the current revival below:
Amahl and the Night Visitors runs December 10 (8pm), 11 (5pm) and 12 (3pm). Tickets range $15-$47 and are available by contacting the Union Avenue Opera Box Office at 314.361.2881 or visiting http://www.unionavenueopera.org/ For more details on this production, view this previous post.
Join Dr. Glen Bauer in the UACC Chapel at 7:15pm on Friday, December 10, 2010 for a brief insight on the history behind Amahl and the Night Visitors. This lecture is presented free of charge. Non-ticket buyers welcome.
The opera was commissioned especially for television and was first performed by NBC Television Opera Theatre in 1951. It will be presented in its original English language at Union Avenue Opera, 733 North Union Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108 and has a run time of approximately 50 minutes.
Click below for a teaser promo of La fille du Régiment on YouTube.
Be sure not to miss the critically acclaimed La fille du Régiment in its final weekend: Saturday, August 7th (8:00pm) and Sunday, August 8th (3:00pm). Sung in French with projected English supertitles. Venue: Union Avenue Christian Church located at 733 Union Blvd in St. Louis. Get your tickets by visiting http://www.unionavenueopera.org/ or calling the box office at 314.361.2881 where there are special offers and discounts available!
Click below for a preview of The Pirates of Penzance on YouTube including Stage Director Mark James Meier's comments on the operetta interspersed with footage of the cast.
The Pirates of Penzance continues its run tonight, running through the weekend: July 16, 17, 18(M). Performances begin at 8pm; 3pm matinee on Sunday. Venue: Union Avenue Christian Church located at 733 Union Blvd in St. Louis. Sung in English with projected English supertitles. To purchase tickets or learn more about this production, please visit the UAO Website or call 314.361.2881
Click below to watch a preview of Lakmé on YouTube. Stage director Scott Schoonover and Conductor Kostis Protopapas offer their insights on this production of Delibes' opera.
Lakmé continues its run August 28 & 29. Performances begin at 8pm. Venue: Union Avenue Christian Church located at 733 Union Blvd in St. Louis. Sung in French with projected English supertitles. To purchase tickets or learn more about this production, please visit the Union Avenue Opera Website or call 314.361.2881
Click below to watch a preview of The Merry Widowon YouTube. Conductor Scott Schoonover and stage director Jolly Stewart offer their insights on Lehár's operetta.
Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow") continues its run August 1, 7, 8, & 9(m). Performances begin at 8pm, except for a 3pm Matinee on August 9th. Venue: Union Avenue Christian Church located at 733 Union Blvd in St. Louis. Sung in German with projected English supertitles. To purchase tickets or learn more about this production, please visit the Union Avenue Opera Website or call 314.361.2881
